The Rewriting of a Pioneering Female Astronomer’s Legacy Shows How Far Trump’s DEI Purge Will Go; ProPublic, January 30, 2025

Lisa Song, ProPublica ; The Rewriting of a Pioneering Female Astronomer’s Legacy Shows How Far Trump’s DEI Purge Will Go

[Kip Currier: Information professionals can be leaders in preserving histories -- like that of influential astronomer Vera Rubin -- and restoring them to the historical record, once this phase of selective erasure and targeted minimization of historically marginalized persons and groups has inevitably passed.

Ask yourself why the current administration is erasing these histories and achievements of individuals who have inarguably faced discrimination, and in countless inspiring instances have surmounted formidable barriers, as members of disenfranchised communities? What are they afraid of? They work to erase these histories so that others won't be empowered by these stories and lessons. They benefit from unequal power structures. They fear equality. They continually stoke fear, division, and distrust to fortify the inequitable power structures that advantage them and disadvantage everyone else.

The world has seen revisionist campaigns like this many times before, though, and I'm confident that truth will eventually prevail again. Those of us in the information professions who care about truth and the historical record -- and the stories of everyone, not just the privileged few -- are going to have to do our parts to stand up to the self-appointed revisionists, censors, and erasers. Just as many information professionals already are doing in ways that make a positive difference every day. I will share some of these stories in future blog posts throughout this year.

As the renowned lawyer John Adams (and future 2nd President of the United States from 1797-1801) pointed out to a Massachusetts court in 1770, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."]

[Excerpt]

"During his first presidential term, Donald Trump signed a congressional actnaming a federally funded observatory after the late astronomer Vera Rubin. The act celebrated her landmark research on dark matter — the invisible, mysterious substance that makes up much of the universe — and noted that she was an outspoken advocate for the equal treatment and representation of women in science.

“Vera herself offers an excellent example of what can happen when more minds participate in science,” the observatory’s website said of Rubin — up until recently.

By Monday morning, a section of her online biography titled, “She advocated for women in science,” was gone. It reappeared in a stripped-down form later that day amid a chaotic federal government response to Trump’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

While there are far more seismic changes afoot in America than the revision of three paragraphs on a website, the page’s edit trail provides an opportunity to peer into how institutions and agencies are navigating the new administration’s intolerance of anything perceived as “woke” and illuminates a calculation officials must make in answering a wide-open question:

How far is too far when it comes to acknowledging inequality and advocating against it?"